Upon installing an application program in a storage device of an information processing apparatus (i.e., a computer), a help screen file (help file) is often installed at the same time. For this reason, when a help screen such as an operation guide or the like is opened from that application program, an effectual help screen can be displayed when the user presses an action button which is provided on a dialog of the application program and is used to display the help screen. As a technique for installing a help file, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-196092 discloses the following one. That is, when the program name of a new program to be installed is designated upon installing the new program, the designated program name is output, and a help file corresponding to the program name is installed.
In the above-mentioned patent document (patent reference 1), since the help file corresponding to the program name input upon installing the new program is installed, the help file is also installed upon installing the new program.
However, in recent years, the total size of a help file which describes help information that can be referred to from an application is increasing. This is because unification of electronic instruction manuals/help documents for a plurality of different application programs, commonization of redundant manuals, and improvement of operability of an electronic instruction manual are achieved. Due to diversification of the functions of the application program, the program size of the application program is increasing. For this reason, when a help file is installed upon installing a new program, the installation time may be prolonged, and a large memory size may be consumed upon installation.
In order to solve the above problem, a mechanism that provides an application program and help file as independent files may be used. In such case, the application program and help file must be individually installed.
When the application program and help file are individually installed, an effectual help file corresponding to the application program may not often be installed. In such case, effectual help information cannot be displayed.